SAN JOSE -- Three homicides in about a four-hour period Sunday added up to a bad day in the city, but it was made worse when San Jose police confirmed Monday that the first two fatalities were boys believed to be between the ages of 15 and 17.

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"Obviously, this is not the way you want to start the summer," said police spokesman Sgt. Jason Dwyer. "The reality is that you're going to have anomalies like this. Our concern is if it becomes a pattern. But, obviously, these are terrible incidents, particularly the one involving minors."

The two boys were shot near McKee Plaza in East San Jose, near Rinehart Drive.

"I was at McDonald's, and I heard two gunshots," said Anjelica Herrera, 38, on Monday. "When I came out, the two boys were on the ground."

Friends and family gather at a makeshift memorial for the two teens that were found shot early Sunday night in East San Jose, Calif., on Monday, May 27, 2013. (Josie Lepe/Bay Area News Group)
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Josie Lepe
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Police responded to a 911 call about the two teenagers just before 6:30 p.m. Later in the evening, a third man was shot to death in South San Jose.

The fatalities brought the city's homicide total this year to 19.

"One homicide is too many," Mayor Chuck Reed said Monday after a Memorial Day ceremony at Oak Hill Memorial Park. "We're up to 19 now, and that's far too many. But people should know that our police department does a great job investigating, catching the bad guys and putting them in a jail. They're putting in a lot of overtime to make sure that happens."

The homicides put the city roughly on pace to match last year's total of 46, which was a 20-year high. If San Jose were to reach 40 homicides again, it would mark the first time since 1991-93 that the city tallied at least 40 in three consecutive years.

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Of the previous 16 homicides, two were gang-related.

Authorities were tight-lipped Monday, citing the on-going investigations. The Santa Clara County Medical Examiner's Office still was confirming identities and locating next of kin. No suspects have been identified, and Dwyer said it was unclear if either incident was gang-related.

"We know that in both of these cases, somebody out there knows what happened," Dwyer said. "The two teenagers could be anybody's kids. The other man who was shot has relatives. We're trying to appeal to somebody's morals and ethics to do the right thing and give us the information we need."

By late Monday afternoon, a crowd of at least 20 grieving teenagers had gathered at the scene of the homicides on Rinehart Drive, located in a neatly kept, working-class neighborhood. A large photo of one of the victims was taped to a tree above a shrine of flowers and candles.

Although several teens posed for smartphone pictures of themselves at the shrine, none would clearly identify the two victims or where they attended school.

Early Sunday night, officers responded to a 911 call reporting two people shot on Rinehart at Clogston Court, not far from a large shopping center on McKee Road. Patrol officers found the two victims on the sidewalk in front of a row of townhouses, both apparently shot with a handgun.

Large group gathers at a makeshift memorial for the two teens that were found shot early Sunday night behind the McKee Plaza behind Kohl's in East San Jose, Calif. on Monday, May 27, 2013. (Josie Lepe/Bay Area News Group)
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Josie Lepe
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One died at the scene. The other was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Sunday, a police spokesman could describe one suspect only as a "Hispanic male, younger, on a BMX bicycle."

At 10:11 p.m., police responded to another 911 call in the 100 block of Hayes Avenue, near Oak Grove High School, in South San Jose, where a man had suffered at least one gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead at the scene about 15 minutes later.

Early Monday morning, that neighborhood was quiet. The only sign that a shooting had occurred was torn police crime tape that appeared to have been blocking a section of the sidewalk along Hayes in front of the Orchard Park Apartments.

As police investigated the homicides, they also were involved in a manhunt after a report at 12:14 a.m. Monday of a man brandishing a gun in a parking lot in the 300 block of North Jackson Avenue.

A patrol officer spotted the suspect's vehicle and followed for several blocks before losing it. A short time later, it was found crashed and unoccupied on Commodore Drive, but police were unable to locate the man after an extensive search of the neighborhood.

At 6 a.m., police received a call from an employee of a business in the 900 block of Lundy Avenue about a suspicious male. Responding police determined he was the suspect and arrested him in possession of a handgun. The man was admitted to a hospital for injuries presumably sustained when he crashed the car, which was stolen.

"This was not the kind of day where you wanted a guy running around in a stolen car, with a gun and who had an outstanding warrant," Dwyer said. "It was a great arrest."

Anyone with information about the shootings is asked to call the San Jose Police homicide department at 408-277-5283.